After dealing with car wreck injuries for over a year,
Please wear your seat belt.
Singer George Jones Hurt in Crash
By JIM PATTERSON Associated Press Writer
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) -- Country singer George Jones
was in critical
condition Saturday after he smashed his
sport-utility vehicle into a
bridge near his home while talking on a cell phone
to his stepdaughter.
Jones, 67, lost control of his Lexus while rounding
a curve on Highway
96, a curvy heavily-traveled two-lane road, and hit
the bridge abutment,
state police said. Police said Jones was not
wearing a seat belt.
It took rescuers about two hours to free him
following the 1:30 p.m.
accident, and he was taken by helicopter to
Vanderbilt University
Medical Center in nearby Nashville.
Doctors said Jones suffered a collapsed lung,
ruptured his liver and had
internal bleeding. He was placed on a ventilator to
aid in his breathing.
Jones was unconscious when he was brought in and
doctors gave him
medication to keep him that way, Dr. John Morris
said.
``The body responds to this kind of injury much
better if we can control
the pain and the blood pressure and so on,'' he
said.
Morris offered no prognosis but said he expects
Jones will remain in
critical condition for at least one or two days.
Jones, famous for hits like ``He Stopped Loving Her
Today'' and ``The
Race is On,'' is generally considered one of the
finest country singers
ever. He was married for six years to the late
singer Tammy Wynette.
The pair were known as ``The King and Queen of
Country Music'' in
the 1970s.
Since 1983, Jones has been married to Nancy Jones,
his manager.
Nicknamed ``Possum,'' Jones was born near Saratoga,
Texas. At 16, he
landed his first job as a musician, being paid
$17.50 a week to play
guitar with a husband-and-wife singing team in bars
and dance halls.
After two years in the Marines, he returned to
Texas and began a
recording career that has spanned 40 years, making
him one of country
music's top stars.
Jones has battled alcoholism and drug abuse during
much of his life. He
was given the nickname ``No Show Jones'' for
failing to appear at so
many concerts and later recorded a song by that
name.
Jones was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame
in 1992. That
same year, country fans and the media voted ``He
Stopped Loving Her
Today'' the most popular country song of all time.
The 1980 weeper
was about a man whose love for a woman died only
when he did.
Jones has been working on a new album for Asylum
Records and is
also host of ``The George Jones Show'' on
television's The Nashville
Network.
Evelyn Shriver, head of Asylum Records, Jones'
record label, said
Jones called her from his car five or 10 minutes
before the crash. He
was listening to seven new songs he had recorded
and was so excited
he wanted to play them for her over the phone but
could not get his
cassette player to work, she said.
She said his stepdaughter, Adina Estes, later told
her she was talking to
him when the crash happened.
He's pulled through before, I hope he gets through this.
Stick
